Euripides

• explain why Euripides was considered "unconventional, both intellectually and personally."
• discuss Eurpides' reputation/status as a playwright.

The Woman's Perspective

• explain why Euripides' depiction of the female perspective in Medea might have startled contemporary audiences.
• recount Medea's (vital) role in Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, including her subsequent abandonment by Jason.
• explain how, by the end of the play, Medea "speaks convincingly both of the woman's role... and of society's negative attitude toward strong, intelligent, and articulate women."

The Heroic Medea

• explain how Medea, having followed the path of the helper-maiden to its conclusion, takes on the role of hero.
• discuss Medea's (usually male) role as "founder of cities."
• discuss the very important role of the oath in Medea.
• discuss violence as Medea's last recourse—something she resorts to only after "the link between rhetoric and truth is broken."
• explain why Medea, as keeper of vows, appears more heroic than Jason.
• explain how Medea's character changes once she has declared that "all words are superfluous."
• explain why fits of passion bear different results for men and women in Greek myth.

Medea and Corinthian Ritual

After studying this section of the chapter you should be able to describe the Corinthian ritual which may have been chartered by the Medea myth.

Another View of Medea

After studying this section of the chapter you should be able to

• elaborate on the text's description of Medea as a "complex figure who incorporates contradictory roles."
• discuss how Euripides takes advantage of drama's "capacity to hold up multiple viewpoints" in Medea.
• identify the differences between Medea and Clytemnestra, and discuss the possible morals implicit in these differences.

A Proletarian Perspective

• discuss the voice of the common people as represented by the tutor, the nurse, and the chorus in Medea; discuss these characters' function as Medea's more rational double(s).
• justify the text's assertion that Medea's "unfocused rage is entirely within the heroic tradition."
• compare and contrast the theme of "moderation" as it is represented in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Euripides' Medea.

The Tragic Heroes Revisited

• explain how the connection between power and territory affects the lives of Jason and Medea; explain why this connection results not in high tragedy, but rather in "domestic drama on its own terms."
• explain why, in comparing Jason and Medea, "it is clearly Medea who comes closest to the conventional tragic protagonist of Greek drama."
• explain how Jason's attempts to "console" Medea only serve to further reveal his cowardice.
• discuss Jason's death as "the final nontragic point in what has been a mockery of the heroic life."

Euripides' Indictment of Tragic Violence

• describe how, unlike earlier Greek dramatists, Euripides "forces us to confront the brutality of the act [Medea's murder of her children]."
• discuss the text's assertion that, in Medea, "we would do better to reserve our admiration for the tutors, the nurses, the village girls, and the peasants."

The Tragic Universe Parodied

• explain how Euripides "turns the [tragic] universe on it head and explores its underside."
• explain how Euripides parodies the recognition scene from Aeschylus's The Libation-Bearers, and explain why this sort of parody marks a significant departure in ancient Greek tragedy.
• discuss the conclusion of Medea as a commentary on the unreliability of the gods.
• discuss the absence of divine sanctions in Medea and the ambiguity surrounding the main characters' fate.
• discuss Medea as a character who "has powers beyond those of ordinary mortals"—powers which "recall those of the ancient Great Goddess herself."
• discuss Medea's affiliation with Hecate and her assertion, spoken to Jason, that "old gods" no longer prevail."
• explain how Medea has "perverted" the powers of the primordial goddess.

The Bacchae: Euripides' Tragic Vision

• recount the basic plot/events of the Bacchae.
• explain why contemporary audiences might find the leading characters in this work disturbing.
• discuss both the mythic and dramatic roles of the Bacchae; identify their first song in the Bacchae as the only extant example of a dithyramb.
• discuss Pentheus's "lack of Apollonian self-knowledge" as demonstrated in his imprisonment of Dionysus.
• identify the (familial) relationship between Dionysus and Pentheus.
• recount Cadmus's founding of Thebes.
• explain how Pentheus's hostility to Dionysus "springs from a deep anxiety about his own sexual identity."
• explain how the attributes which Pentheus and Dionysus share are a source of strength for the god, and destruction for the mortal.
• discuss the play's major reversal (i.e. between Pentheus and Dionysus).
• explain how, when Pentheus appears on stage outfitted as a woman, "his action self-reflexively recapitulates the nature of the dramatic festival itself"; explain how this moment quickly degenerates into parody.
• explain why Pentheus's death is both thematically and narratively fitting.
• describe how "the ethical contradictions intrinsic to nature... are sublimely combined in Dionysus."
• explain why Pentheus's fear of human nature freed from social order proves "abundantly justified."
• identify the similarities between Agave and Artemis; explain why these similarities play out tragically for Agave.
• explain why Agave's murder of her own son "underscores the divided nature of gender roles."
• explain how Agave, as hero-impersonator, "acts out her resentment of oppression, revealing not only the difference between a tragedy enacted on stage and one actually performed, but also the contrast between male and female 'heroes'."
• describe how traditional authorities are mocked and subsequently restored in Euripides' Bacchae.
• identify the recognition scene in the Bacchae as "one of the most excruciating scenes of madness ever devised for the theater"; explain why Agave is "in a unique position to assess the value of Bacchanalian frenzy."
• explain why rejection of "Dionysus and all he stands for" is the only gesture of freedom available to Agave by the end of the play.
• describe the (thematic) resemblance between Agave and Cassandra.
• explain how Tiresias "successfully balances the unavoidable contrarieties of control and freedom."
• describe Tiresias's narrative function in myths concerning Thebes.
• explain how Tiresias's accommodation of both Apollo and Dionysus parallels "Delphi's historic accommodation of two radically different aspects of godhood."
• explain why Dionysus exiles Cadmus and later transforms him into a serpent.
• demonstrate how, for Euripides, "sympathy for others and concern for their anguish are strictly human responses to tragic loss."

The Bacchae and the Festival of Dionysus

• explain how the play calls dramatic to the relationship between Apollo and Dionysus.
• explain how the Bacchae "provides a reminder that belief in any deity... requires a leap of faith."